Malabu Scandal: Milan Court Acquits Shell, ENI

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Agency Report — A Milan court on Wednesday acquitted energy companies ENI and Shell in Nigeria’s oil industry’s biggest corruption scandal.

Also acquitted by the court was a long list of past and present managers of the firms, including Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi.

The verdict, read out in court by judge Marco Tremolada, comes more than three years after the trial first began and after a total of 74 hearings.

He said the companies and defendants had been acquitted because there was no case to answer.

The long-running case revolves around the purchase of the OPL 245 offshore oilfield in Nigeria in 2011 from Malabu Oil and Gas, a company owned by former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.

Prosecutors alleged that just under $1.1 billion of the purchase price was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen, including Etete.

Prosecutors had called for Eni and Shell to be fined and for a number of past and present managers from both companies, including Descalzi, to be jailed.

The defendants all denied any wrongdoing.

'Dotun Akintomide
'Dotun Akintomide
'Dotun Akintomide's journalism works intersect business, environment, politics and developmental issues. Among a number of local and international publications, his work has appeared in the New York Times. He's a winner of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Award. Currently, the Online Editor at The New Diplomat, Akintomide has produced reports that uniquely spoke to Nigeria's experience on Climate Change issues. When Akintomide is not writing, volunteering or working on a media project, you can find him seeing beautiful sites like the sandy beaches that bedecked the Lagos coastline.

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